Frank discussions like these are just part of what makes Aspira so attractive to teen-agers. Part counseling session, part leadership development program, part after-school club, Aspira, which is Spanish for "aspire," is aimed at encouraging mostly minority students to stay in school and avoid the pitfalls of youth, such as teen pregnancy and drug use.

It combines counseling for middle and high schoolers with workshops to teach parents how to help students succeed in school. Program counselors also visit the students' homes to meet with their families.

Started 38 years ago in New York, Aspira initially targeted Puerto Rican children to keep them from dropping out of school and to encourage them to attend college.

Aspira came to Florida 18 years ago and has been helping students in Broward County for eight years. Three years ago, the nonprofit agency entered into a contract with the Broward County School Board to provide services in several South Broward schools.

In addition to Miramar High, programs are in place at McArthur High in Hollywood, Apollo and Attucks middle schools in Hollywood and Perry Middle in Miramar. An outreach program is also at Driftwood Park.

An awards ceremony to honor Aspira youths is scheduled on Friday.

Aspira officials want to expand the program to other parts of Broward and are raising money to hire staff members to add more programs, said Syndia Nazario-Cardona, director of Aspira Broward. Margate Middle and several schools in Coral Springs have requested the program, she said.

It costs about $35,000 to hire a staff member to run the program at two schools, she said.

The school clubs meet at least once a week with an Aspira counselor. Discussion topics range from teen pregnancy to drug prevention to careers.

Students speak about it in glowing terms and look forward to their weekly club meetings.

Junior Alejandra Abreu, 16, joined the program as a seventh-grader at Perry Middle School, when she was invited by some friends.

"I didn't have anything to do after school, so I thought instead of coming home and watching cartoons, I could go," she said. The student, who had moved with her family from the Dominican Republic four years earlier, found a positive, friendly atmosphere where students shared their problems.

"It was people like me," said Abreu, who admits finding it difficult to adjust to life in the United States. She had been painfully shy, but she now serves as junior class president and has been elected president of her senior class next year.

"I felt comfortable. I felt like I wasn't the only one who had problems," she said. "I grew, I matured. You can even tell a change in my grades. I was a C student, an average student. Now I have all honors classes."

It's a place where students find like-minded peers they might not otherwise meet in the school hallways. While its focus is on minorities, the club is open to all students.

"You can get your feelings out and you talk about things you don't talk about to your parents," said junior Janet Ferrer, 16.

Naida Sanchez has been in the program since sixth grade. She saw her older brother shed his shyness in the program, and asked to attend.

"I had just moved from Puerto Rico and it was a way to meet people," she said. "I liked it."